Mosul taking path toward new stability

U.S. general helps smooth troubles

May 14, 2003|By Christine Spolar, Tribune foreign correspondent.

MOSUL, Iraq — As Baghdad pops with daily gunfire and limps along with intermittent electricity and water, Mosul has accomplished near wonders under the active command of an American general: Water flows from taps, road crews pick up trash, and Iraqi police and U.S. troops, working side by side, patrol the streets.

Baghdad and Mosul are two important barometers of postwar Iraq and its prospects for recovery. How they fare, observers believe, may set the pattern for the rest of the country as it tries to rebuild and embark on complex political reforms.

"It's important that Baghdad and Mosul happen today," said Fadhil Merani, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who has advised the Americans in the past few months. "Because if they don't come back, it won't come to Tikrit or Dohuk or Suleimaniyah."

In this tale of two cities, Mosul is an unlikely success. The sprawling northern hub of 2 million--a combustible mix of Iraqis, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians that American forces feared would roil with ethnic warfare--became the first place, early this month, to hold local elections for an interim government. And it was one of the swiftest to open its government bank vault to dole out back pay to Iraqi workers.

General earns his stars

These swift steps have been led by Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division.

"It's pretty basic stuff," Petraeus said. "It's all about engagement and knowing what's going on in the police station, the ministries and the homes. . . . What we need to do is stop assessing and start doing stuff. Because frustrations are just waiting to well up."

Such policies have produced measurable progress in Mosul. By contrast, Baghdad continues to struggle. Services in the capital remain erratic, with meager access to water and electricity for the city's 5 million people.

The reasons for Baghdad's troubles can be debated--too few soldiers on the ground to ensure security, confusion between U.S. generals and government bureaucrats, a bunker mentality among Americans leading aid efforts--but the evidence is obvious.

"I think war is easier than the period we are going through now," Merani said. "If there's war, and I have a son killed, we understand. But now in peace, if my son is killed in a kidnapping or robbery, I ask questions. In a war, if you don't have fuel or electricity, it's OK. But if I don't have it now, tomorrow or the next week, what do you say?"

Mosul, in the first days after Saddam Hussein's fall, was troubled. U.S. Special Forces troops seized the city but were unable to thwart looters. By mid-April, the chaos turned deadly.

The 101st Airborne arrived in a city where people were fearful of each other--and of the Americans.

The commanding general, Petraeus, fresh from battle in the south, said he quickly adapted his force of 17,000 to the needs of Mosul's 2 million people. The infantry walked along the streets to convey a sense of order. The first day in town, Petraeus went on Al Jazeera television to talk about the future of Iraq.

Ready to work

Petraeus soon found that people in Mosul were eager for direction. A manager from the local airport knocked on his door. Could Petraeus give him the authority to call back workers? Yes, the general replied, sending armed soldiers to help.

The head of the central bank phoned. He had money to pay government workers, but no one in Baghdad could give him the authority to open the vaults. Petraeus, writing on 101st Airborne stationery, commanded that the cash flow begin.

And then Petraeus embarked on a political campaign unlike anything Iraqis who were interviewed for this story had ever seen. He and his aides contacted tribal leaders, Kurds, Arabs, former military officials and former police and rounded them up for talks.

Every day, for nine straight days and for three to five hours at a time, Petraeus urged and cajoled the townsmen of Mosul to figure out what they could do for Iraq.

The 50-year-old general, a West Point graduate who has a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University, appealed to the Iraqis' sense of duty, knowing that Mosul had been an important source of generations of military men. He pointed out that Mosul, an important oil base and commercial crossroads, could rebound quickly if calm were restored. And he spoke philosophically about how the university town, home to a respectable cadre of scientists, could set a high-minded example.

By May 5, Petraeus deemed Mosul ready for indirect elections to choose a mayor among three candidates.

The meeting was tense, said several people who attended. At one point, a group of academics confronted Petraeus. They said they were taking over the Mosul government. Based on their reading of the U.S. Constitution, it was their right.

Petraeus, who admits he was a bit perplexed by the constitutional challenge, thanked them for their understanding of American law. But, he firmly told the crowd, he was in charge.